Media communication (or communications including images or videos) is an increasingly popular method for users to engage each other. For example, where a user might have in the past composed a text communication share news, the user may now post a digital video/image sharing the good news. Media communications have become a preferred means of communication because digital videos, photographs, and the like generally take less time to create than a written message. Similarly, media communications are capable of effectively communicating more than a typical written message.
As media communications have gained popularity, so too have media effects. Media effects are special digital effects that a user applies to a media communication in order to make the communication more interesting, fun, and/or engaging. For example, if a user is creating a digital video to discuss a recent victory of a favorite sporting team, the user may apply a frame including the sporting team's name and colors around the video display. Other media effects can change displayed colors, add text, alter the appearance of people or articles, add additional graphics or animations, and so forth.
Creating media communications with media effects is now so commonplace that there are an ever-increasing number of media effects available to users. This increasing number of media effects, however, is problematic in many ways. For example, the number of media effects that a user generally has to select from is often overwhelming. As such, users typically choose one of only a few previously used media effects, rather than spending the time needed to search through large selections of available media effects.
In order to address the unwieldy nature of large collections of media effects, some conventional systems provide the user with a subset of the collection of media effects. For example, such conventional systems limit the number of media effects available to all users to a predetermined subset that the system periodically rotates. Thus, such conventional systems may provide a first subset of media effects for a week or month and then change the available media effects to a second subset for the next week or month. While providing a universal set of filtered/default media effects to all users/devices helps reduce the problem of searching through a large collection of media effects, it also limits a user's ability to access large numbers of the media effects that may be suitable or desirable for a given communication.
Other conventional systems provide a list of default media effects to all users. If users desire access to additional media effects the users must purchase, download, or unlock the additional media effects. While limiting media effects to a list of default media effects helps reduce the problem of searching through a large collection of media effects, it has other negative drawbacks. In particular, many users often never purchase, download, or unlock the additional media effects due to not knowing this is an option or not having the technical ability, time, or money to access the additional media effects. Thus, the use of a list of default media effects effectively prevents many users from ever accessing or using media effects that may be suitable or desirable for a given communication. Other users may desire and know how to purchase, download, or unlock additional media effects but may again be faced with the difficulty of having to search through large numbers of additional features to find or discover the media effects they wish to make available.
Furthermore, users are often interested in creating media communications as quickly as possible. Thus, most users simply do not have the time to scroll through libraries of media effects in order to find a media effect that is on-point with their media communication. Similarly, users may not have the time to purchase, download, or unlock additional media effects. Accordingly, most users either revert to using a default but less desirable media effect, which may not add much to the media communication, or they simply skip adding a media effect all together.